The Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill continued to wend its way through the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday with the adoption of the Justice Secretary’s amendment 146. The amendment deleted the original proposal to move from 15 to 12 jurors in criminal trials, whilst maintaining the proposal to move to a 2/3 majority for conviction (now to be 10 from 15).

‘Not proven’ is still set to be abolished, however the focus of the jury will be to decide whether or not the required 10 from 15 majority for conviction is to be achieved. An acquittal verdict will be secured if six or more jurors do not vote for conviction – this is not directly specified in the bill, however it is a consequence of what is specified and what has been discussed in the Scottish Parliament.

The ‘not proven’ verdict will thus be rendered redundant by procedure as well as by abolition, as the focus will be on conviction voting. In other words, anyone previously voting for ‘not proven’ need only avoid voting for conviction in future. The ‘not proven’ verdict is to be abolished, in part, because it is regarded by some as a ‘cop-out’ on decision-making. However, it appears that the reforms being proposed now offer a bigger opportunity to cop-out by omission. And this whilst simultaneously making it less likely to achieve conviction on a purely numerical basis, particularly in finely balanced trials.

The uncertainty over these reforms was clear from the debate on Wednesday and the call for further research has never been clearer.

Dave Lorimer, author of Jury Size, Majorities and Conviction Rates